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Latest blog posts from From the Woodshed

Angel City Jazz Festival
I drove up to LA for the Angel City Jazz Festival on Labor Day. Got to see music by Ian Rapien, Option 3, Motoko Honda, Both Sides Now, Nick Rosen Group, Leni Stern, Alan Pasqua Quartet, Satoko Fujii Ma-Do Quartet, Robby Marshall Group, and Nels Cline Quintet. I was there for 10 hours and enjoyed... Read more...
Published 4 weeks ago

Day Job
I landed a web programming job, started today. It's pretty fun. Like I said last month, I'm not practicing full-time anymore. I've been cut down to 2-4 hours a day. That's not bad, but it's no 8-10. It'll be nice to work for money for a while, even if it's not in music yet. Especially after being... Read more...
Published 2 months ago

Scales and 'Lympics
The Olympics on NBC are great programming for practicing scales. Between all the stories and ads, there's plenty of content to ignore. I've had my eye on the websites for SDSU and CSUN jazz programs since deferring enrollment at LAMA. They have lists of required repertoire and scales. I found my... Read more...
Published 2 months ago

Pentatonics over Jazz Chords
I've been working on the changes to "All the Things You Are." The key of the tune modulates through Ab, C, Eb, G, E. I practice by cycling through the major scale for each key, and this helps with accessing arbitrary scales all over the fretboard. Within each key is a diatonic collection of... Read more...
Published 2 months ago

What's Next for the Woodshed?
I've relocated my woodshed to San Diego. My immediate plan is to find work for a while and consider cheaper options for music school (starting with CSUN and SDSU). Unfortunately, this means less practice time, but I'm also going to start playing out again. It will be nice to apply and refine my... Read more...
Published 2 months ago

Sleep, Dreams, Creativity
Lucid dreaming has been a goal of mine since I found a website on it five years ago. I've made half-hearted attempts at exercises to induce lucid dreams with, surprisingly, no results. The strongest advice on every website I've found is to keep a dream journal. I never tried it until earlier this... Read more...
Published 3 months ago

Defer
I've decided to defer enrollment at LAMA. Missing out on that scholarship put me through a frenzy of thinking over the last week. If I go, I'll have some assurance that I'll reach a professional level in two years, and I'll have access to a network of classmates and instructors before I even... Read more...
Published 3 months ago

No Scholarship
I opened a letter from LA Music Academy's scholarship committee yesterday. As this post's clever title suggests, I got nothin'. Junk. I recorded a demo video and wrote an essay for the application. I uploaded the video here a month ago. I was hoping to post the essay in a more triumphant manner.... Read more...
Published 3 months ago

Practice While Hiking
Just returned from a 4-day backpacking trip in Kings Canyon, CA. It was an amazing experience, tainted only by a lack of guitars. But I didn't let that stop me from practicing. I estimate we put in over 20 hours on the trail. One can dedicate only so much time to taking in scenery, snapping... Read more...
Published 3 months ago

Triad Trainer
I finally published a second item to the Tools page: the Triad Trainer. Like its predecessor, the Interval Trainer, it's just like computerized flash cards. You'll see three note names displayed, and the object is to identify the triad comprising the notes. Features are limited for now. Only... Read more...
Published 4 months ago